My journey alone into the wilderness

[friendowl]

sounds like an experience
have you ever spent time alone...in the woods
its not as easy and as fun as you might expect

i hope you do make this happen
id be very interested to read your journal

what part of the country are you thinking

why not hike the john muir trail
you can have all the solitude you like and
when you get tired of yourself you can have fun with us

[dragonrider]

Pathfinder, what kind of experience do you have doing this sort of thing? It seems like some people are giving advice like you had never gone on even a single backpacking trip, and others are telling you how to survive on your own totallly bereft of human contact for the rest of your life. If you are going to be way out on the wilderness with no contact, you should ahve a good amount of experience with smaller scale backpacking trips, and you will need experience with fishing, hunting, trapping, edible plants, etc.

Personally, I'm not that interested in a full blown survivalist experience, unless it is the stranded-on-a-tropical-island variety, preferrably the Mysterious Island of Beaturiful Women. Wilderness is great, but total solitude gets old after awhile --- it's ok for some time, but it gets old. And completely relying on catching/finding your own food also gets very old very quickly --- most people have no idea how much work it is every day.

So no survivalist trips for me; however, I do have a lot of backpacking experience, and I would like to some day do something like what freindowl was talking about --- one of the long trail treks, like the John Muir, or Pacific Crest or Appalachian trail.

[friendowl]

7-18-08...jmt

[Pathfinder]

dont you like have a job/family, and what are their thoughts on all of this?

I have a job that I absolutely hate, and I have zero desire to remain at this job for the rest of my life. I'm planning a career change. After I leave my current job, and before I start a new one, I'm a free man.

The only family I have worth mentioning is my 15 year old. But he lives half way across the country from me and I never get to see him anyways.

There's really nothing here for me to miss. The solitude won't bother me at all. I've been groomed for it my whole life. I've always been the outsider, always been alone. Loneliness is the very least of my concerns.

[friendowl]

what part of the country are you thinking of exploring

[Pathfinder]

what part of the country are you thinking of exploring

I still haven't made a definite decision as to location. Here is one prospect:

YouTube - Ray Mears' Extreme Survival - The Rocky Mountains 1of3

[Ghengis Chron]

Thanks for that link, I think I like Ray Mears better than Bear Grylls and Les Stroud. This is really cool. Teaches you exactly what you have to know that's most important, and nothing more. And the music is great!

[Pathfinder]

Thanks for that link, I think I like Ray Mears better than Bear Grylls and Les Stroud. This is really cool. Teaches you exactly what you have to know that's most important, and nothing more. And the music is great!

Ray Mears is awesome. Thank goodness for YouTube or those of us in the U.S. would never get to see his show. I like Les Stroud, too. Bear Grylls, however, is the pro-wrestling version of survival shows.

[Ghengis Chron]

Yeah I actually like Les Stroud too. Bear Grylls is O.K, I don't see any problem in staying in a hotel or whatever he did, the point is to prepare people to the extremes. Les and Ray are more realistic though.

[MadSativa]

haha been their done that